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Original reading/sharing followed by all the responses as of September 3rd 2004.

August 31st 2004

Good Morning to All,

In the "Science Times" section of the April 6th 2004 New York Times, I read some chilling statistics in the cover article "The Altered Human is Already Here". They were not yet suggesting a cross between RoboCop and Borg, but they certainly made a strong case for the "Bio-Chemical Human".

Some questions to ponder: What's going on here? More importantly, why? And lastly, now what?

“The Altered Human is Already Here”
April 6th 2004 New York Times

Here are a couple of shockers that jumped out for me:

	In 2002 there were over 10,000,000 children that took prescription medications for more than three months.
	Preschoolers are now the fastest growing group of children receiving antidepressants!

Now the background and some facts:

Just fifty years ago (some of us actually remember 1954), the two biggest selling drugs were Bufferin (headaches, joint pain and muscle soreness) and Geritol (for “iron poor blood”).

Now the top two are actually drug classes: Statins (to reduce cholesterol) representing 14 billion dollars in 2003 and Proton Pump Inhibitors (to prevent heartburn, gastritis and ulcers) representing 13 billion dollars in 2003. As to the third drug class, can you guess? If you guessed Anti-depressants, you were correct – representing 11 billion dollars in 2003.

Last year, retail drugs sales in the good ole USA was an incredible $163,000,000,000 (that’s 163 billion dollars). That’s more than 51 percent of the pharmaceutical dollars spent world-wide and yet we represent less than 5 percent of the world population!

In the USA for the year 2003, for just three of the drug categories: painkillers, antidepressants and cholesterol reducers, there were over 8 million prescriptions written each week. That’s well over a million prescriptions per day! How does that compare with just a few years ago? It’s actually a 54% increase since 1999!

Responses to "The Altered Human"

    Do you think this is an indication of stress overload?   The United States TV watcher spends a large portion of each day seeing NEWS, Advertisements, and soap operas (not much education ) and have you watched the shows the children watch? Each area presented in a stressful content and manner.   Presentations in each area in simpler jargon with fancier action each year as the masses become more and more simplistic - the era of the sound bite. [children learn visually first - TV's are not babysitters.]
     Years ago when I became stressed at what I saw around me I thought of going the chemical way but held on till I realized that the internal chemistry of the human has a way of supporting, but only after giving it the real "College Try".   When a blade cuts off a persons finger - the body sends messages that help it avoid instant shock and thus the person can survive.
     And ---- Sometimes , people sense the future and take medication as they are not able to wait for their own chemistry.
A real QUESTION: When is it OK to warn another of a future event, even though it might not happen (terrorist attack). The event is anticipated to be stressful, but maybe the warning will give time for the natural chemistry to moderate the stress --- maybe only working if the person getting the warning avoids doing the artificial chemistry.
These scenarios have been tried on laboratory mice and continual stress leads to all sorts of problems --- have the mice been given antidepressants before entering a stressful maze? What was the outcome? A person may be able to withstand one or two stressful future event scenarios -- but the Preschoolers???????
     What is depressing the preschoolers?   Is there a future warning imbedded in their anticipation? Bottom line --- doesn't look very good.
But, the Olympics , especially the swimming was great! (always give an uplifting "pill" with each stressful thought)

~~~

I think it's the belief that a little pill will solve our problems that has had the most growth over the past 50 years, fueled no doubt, by the same TV ads that promoted Bufferin and Geritol.

No one's taking responsibility for eating less, much less eating less fat. If people believe in the low-carb ( low-evidence, actually) diet, it's no wonder that their cholesterol is elevated... but that can be fixed by taking statins such as Lipitor or Zocor. Keep on shoveling that meat in the gullet which by the way causes gastric problems at the least and several cancers at its worst.

Our national love affair with violence in our media, TV shows, videos, and movies I think has us addicted to another unhealthy habit. While some people escape into these domains of self-illusory empowerment, others succumb to depression.

Science is/has been the new god of the last half century, at least as revered by the highest priests of Western civilization, the Americans.

~~~

Let's face it, the pharmaceutical industry "owns" this country now. Capitalism is like fruit on the vine....that has not been picked and has become rotten.

~~~

It is a sad state of affairs that has developed----especially with the

anti-depressants----more so with their use in younger children and

adolescents with considerable question about safety. The statins are of

special value, but do we need seven of them (and still more to come!)?

The way the pharmaceutical companies are marketing them---now even in

the daily newspapers---and samples given to M.D.s Not enough time in the

doctor's office to get to the root of the problem. "A pill will solve the problem".

~~~

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